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Monitored 146.52 going to the Belton, Texas hamfest weekend before last. In the past, .52 had no
activity at all. This time, I was just driving along (4am) and out of the blue, someone threw out their
call ! Almost ran off the road! Turned out the guy was 15 miles behind me and going to the same
hamfest. Before we got to Belton, there were 6 mobile stations talking back and forth and having
a blast. Met up at the hamfest and enjoyed that as well.
Like others have already said, with as little use as .52 normally seems to have, having a qso on it
doesn't seem like a bad thing as long as you give others a chance to jump in and make a call too.
I'm just glad to see 2 meter simplex being used more!
james
WD5GWY

I and a small group here in WI are revitalizing 2 meter AM, I hope there is more luck than my attempts at 2 meter CW......

Yes .52 IS a calling frequency, for people to continue monitoring, it is best to call, and if not just a few words, QSY to a near, but difffernt frequency. People looking for openings will tune, I hope, a few Khz looking for QSO's up and down ffrom .52.

My friend and I were on 144.200 this morning, as you know thats the 2m ssb calling frequency. Sure enough another station came in between us. No problem, my friend ended up working him, I just listened as I was in the middle of my peanut butter and jelly sammich..

Monitored 146.52 going to the Belton, Texas hamfest weekend before last. In the past, .52 had no
activity at all. This time, I was just driving along (4am) and out of the blue, someone threw out their
call ! Almost ran off the road! Turned out the guy was 15 miles behind me and going to the same
hamfest. Before we got to Belton, there were 6 mobile stations talking back and forth and having
a blast. Met up at the hamfest and enjoyed that as well.
Like others have already said, with as little use as .52 normally seems to have, having a qso on it
doesn't seem like a bad thing as long as you give others a chance to jump in and make a call too.
I'm just glad to see 2 meter simplex being used more!
james
WD5GWY

Love the Belton Arena, looks like a big ol flying saucer...

I'm sorry you don't have the experience or understanding to realize that others possess a skill set that you seem to dismiss as fantastical.

National Simplex

Back in the Good-Old-Days before synthesizers, 146.52 MHz was the National Simplex Frequency. There was seldom any switching to another channel for a QSO because most hams did not own a lot of crystals. Perhaps in some areas it was used as a calling channel, but not anywhere that I am familiar with. Then about 15 years ago the ARRL decided it should be a calling channel and they changed the designation in the repeater directory and on their bandplan.

After the ARRL changed their designation, I never heard any change in operating practices.

My own opinion is that it is good to have a national simplex channel, but whether it is used as a calling channel or not should depend on local conditions. Considering the other posts on this thread, it seems that there is some variation around the country but .52 is rather lacking in activity. So just monitor the channel for a while, and see what is happening in your area.

A related item: many clubs or groups that get on simplex and talk a lot usually select some other simplex frequency as a club or group frequency. That keeps a lot of the more long winded traffic off of .52.

the difference between Maritime channel 16 and 146.520 is that it is required to monitor channel 16 frequency as it is designated as a calling frequency where you establish your contact then move off to either a ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore channel. Conversations cannot be held on channel 16, other than to establish what channel you are moving to, generally because the Coast Guard will come on the channel and ask you to move to a working frequency.

Operation on 146.520 is entirely a gentlemans' agreement between hams. Using the frequency is OK, but if other traffic comes on the channel, you should yield the frequency and move to any other frequency that the stations in the conversation agree upon. But, there is not a legal requisite to do so. It is just a good operating practice.

So, IMHO, I would say,listen and use it as a local QSO frequency, and listen to it just in case somthing of real importance comes on there needing your or someone elses help.

Last edited by WA8LGM; 04-24-2012 at 05:12 PM.
Reason: clarification of content

[FONT=Arial Black][SIZE=4][SIZE=3][FONT=Garamond]John, WA8LGM

Hey!! Why am I in this handcart and where am I going? :mad::mad:
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